Matt Johnson, who directed the upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic "Roadrunner," offers a candid assessment of why the biographical film genre so often fails audiences. Speaking with IndieWire, Johnson identifies three critical pitfalls that plague most biopics and explains how his approach to the Bourdain project sidesteps them.
Johnson's previous work on "BlackBerry," the 2022 thriller about the smartphone's rise and fall, demonstrated his ability to mine dramatic tension from historical subjects without succumbing to the genre's typical constraints. That film earned widespread critical praise for treating its corporate story with the energy of a heist narrative rather than a dutiful chronicle.
For the Bourdain film, Johnson emphasizes rejecting the conventional biopic structure. Most biographical films compress complex lives into a linear, reverential timeline that prioritizes chronology over drama. They often reduce fascinating humans to motivational templates. Johnson instead focuses on what made Bourdain distinctive: his appetite for storytelling, his restlessness, his contradictions. Rather than cataloging his achievements from birth to death, Johnson locates the actual conflict at the heart of his subject's existence.
The director also stresses avoiding hagiography. Biopics frequently soften their subjects' rough edges or manufacture redemptive arcs that feel false. Johnson appears to embrace Bourdain's complexity, the darker currents beneath his public persona, the tensions that defined his life rather than smoothing them away.
Finally, Johnson argues against the trap of self-seriousness. Many biopics announce their importance through stiff performances and earnest cinematography. They feel like homework. Johnson instead champions style, tonal fluidity, and the kind of formal risk-taking that makes watching a film an active experience rather than a passive tribute.
With "Roadrunner," Johnson attempts to prove that biopics can be vital cinema rather than prestige obligations. His framework offers a template for the genre: dramatic structure over biographical completeness, human complexity over mythmaking, and filmmaking vitality over institutional reverence.